Roads to Nightfall
by Chained Fighter
Summary: Sequel of Way to Sunset. Friends were lost, friendships were built and destroyed, many did not come back, but is it really over? Ten years later, someone new has entered the scene. Can she help defend and repair the worlds before it's too late, even if she can't remember?
1. Chapter 1

**Welcome to the start of the sequel! I sincerely hope you all enjoy while I'll try not to make as many regretables as last story's (if ya thought there were…), but hey! You live and you learn! I DO own Kingdom-**

**Police: *busts in the room* Freeze!**

**Chained: Ok ok! I DON'T own Kingdom Hearts! But wouldn't it be cool if I did?**

"I'm sure it's over here!"

"Well hurry up! Or are you just scared of another beating in front Kairi?"

"Keep dreaming!"

My eyes barely opened as I heard the sound of two boys ringing through my ears. There, I saw a blurred figure walking out of an opening that I couldn't quite make out. I was on something soft, with my knees partly away from my chest and my arms limp.

"Now I know it's somewhere over here…" I heard his voice once again as he walked in farther. At once, he stopped abruptly in my direction, kneeling down to me. With my vision not clear at all, I couldn't tell what he was looking at. I tried to stand, but found myself unable to even move.

"What's taking you so long?" The other boy yelled from afar, his voice impatient.

"I think you should come see this…" He called back slowly. At the boy's words, another male walked in from the previous opening.

"This had better be-" Just like the first boy, this one stopped cold. Mustering all of my strength, I pushed my feet away from me, trying to get leverage from what I was leaning on. My arms found their way on the stone support, slowly and weakly edging me up. Finally being able to stand, I took a step, only to discover that my legs worked as well as my entire body, sending me straight back to the ground.

"H-hey!" Was the last thing I heard before I fell back into darkness.

I opened my eyes once again, feeling something soft under me. The palms of my hands, which were on the material, pressed softly against it before I groggily opened my eyes. The first thing I saw was a small boat with three little figures on board. Sitting up, I looked around, rubbing my eyes, with hands which I found were gloved, so I could see clearly. It was a boy's room, a cluttered one at that. Socks and other clothes were splayed throughout the space in a disorganized fashion.

"Ah, you're awake!" I jumped as I heard a voice out of nowhere. Turning around, I noticed a red headed girl with blue eyes looking right back at me. She put her hand near her mouth, calling for someone. "Sora, Riku!"

"Who…" I started to ask, finally finding my words. At once, two familiar looking boys walked through the door; one had brown hair and blue eyes while the other had silver hair with a teal eye color.

"How are you feeling?" The brunette asked first.

"I…" I slowly looked down at the palms of my hands, which were now facing me on my lap. "I'm...ok." I finally answered.

"That's a relief." The redhead grinned.

"But, how did you get down there in the first place?" The silver haired boy asked. I looked straight at him. That was a good question.

"I don't know." I said simply. "I don't... remember."

"You don't remember?" The brunette repeated. "Boy, that's weird."

"I'm sure it'll come back to you soon." He smiled. "My name's Riku by the way."

"I'm Kairi!" The redhead chimed in, grinning.

"And I'm Sora." The brunette said lastly, putting his arms behind his back in a relaxed manner.

"I-" I closed my mouth, pausing my sentence completely. "I..." Kairi raised her eyebrows slightly, signaling for me to go on as Sora's brow furrowed. "I don't..."

"You don't remember that either?" Kairi asked in disbelief, leaning closer to me. Looking into her eyes, my eyes widened in return, my mind flashing back somewhere strange.

_NO! MI-_

"Agh...!" I flinched back, clutching my head.

"Whoa!" Sora stepped forward with worry as Kairi backed away, frightened.

"What happened?" Riku asked the girl.

"I-I don't know..." She stammered. I saw her hand fly up, probably to her chest to try slowing her now rapid heart rate.

"No, it wasn't her." I let go of my head and looked up to the rest of them once more. "My name is... Migaru." Riku folded his arms with a puzzled look on his face.

"Well," He started. "That was sooner than I thought."

"Is there anything else you remember?" Sora questioned me. My newfound headache subsiding, I pondered over this for a moment. All I drew were blanks.

"Not at the moment…no…" I sighed. Both Kairi and Sora exhaled in distress as Riku simply shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, we've got one thing." He told the three of us, trying to lift our spirits. "Besides, if she remembered her name that fast, it won't take much time to get the rest of her memories back."

"I wonder how you lost them though." Sora looked to me.

"Yea…" I replied, thinking about the matter also. How exactly does one go about losing memories anyway? Sitting at the edge of the bed, I asked them a question. "I don't live here?"

"Nope." Kairi answered. It wasn't much of a question anyway, finally noticing how different I looked from them. My skin was much darker than theirs, even my clothes, a black three-quarter sleeved shirt with a small breast pocket and long pants slightly covering my black shoes contrasted from their bright yellow, red, and lavender clothing. Even my black hair contrasted from their lighter colored hair. "But I asked my parents in advanced if you could stay at my house for the time being." She grabbed my hands, smiling brightly. "They said yes!"

_How carefree_, I thought to myself, standing up. Just as the redhead said, I was taken by her parents with open arms, free to live with them until my lost memories were restored. Unfortunately, it had been weeks with no result. But that's when Riku posed a question one day.

"Another world?" Sora asked as we all sat near the shack next to a wooden bridge.

* * *

"Exactly." Riku replied, believing he was on to something. "And if you think about it, things start to make sense."

"Like how we've never seen her before?" Kairi clarified. Riku tipped his head to the girl in agreement, folding his arms.

"And she just appears here, like you did."

"Kairi too?" I asked as the two boys nodded, looking to each other. How weird… "And that raft you're building…"

"Is just for that." The silver haired boy finished. "The faster we can get this raft finished, the sooner we can find out if there are any worlds out there." Riku put his hand to his chin in serious thought. "There's just no way this could be all there is..."

I intertwined my fingers behind my back, looking towards the three of them. The thought was pretty unreasonable, especially for kids our age, considering all other possibilities there could be-not that I could think of any at the moment, but I'm sure there were some. Finally, I decided to voice my thoughts. "I don't know… "

"And we'll continue not to if we don't at least try." Riku steeled his resolve as he crossed his arms, looking directly to me. "Don't you want to see the outside worlds, Migaru?"

"_If _there _are _any."

"Well, if there were," Kairi interjected as we all stood up, my height slightly above Sora's. "Then wouldn't there be a better chance of your memory returning?"

"You have a point." I sighed, putting my hands on my hips with a smile. "If there _are _other worlds out there, and I'm from any of them, then I'll admit you're right. Hey, I'll even give you a Sea-Salt-" I stopped there, not exactly knowing what to say next.

"A sea salt?" Sora asked.

"Ah, forget I said anything." I replied, not sure myself. Deciding to dismiss that from my mind completely, we set off to work even harder to build the raft- I use the term 'we' lightly, since Sora lazed off sometimes and Kairi took inventory-, nearly getting it finished and ready for our journey.

"We need three more logs, cloth, two ropes, and some food." I said to myself, memorizing what Kairi had told me before I went ahead on my makeshift boat, hurriedly made weeks ago to make it to and fro without trouble, to the islands. As I make it to the dock, where I spotted Riku and Sora's boats, I noticed Sora lying down on the sand with his hands behind his head, ready for a nap.

"Migaru…" He said groggily, tilting his head up to me as I walked over.

"Kairi isn't going to be here for a little bit," I started before he could look for the redhead that would shake him out of his sleep. "But keep your eyes open. She could come in at anytime." The boy nodded and, in time, was out like a light. "Sweet dreams…" At that moment, I spotted a brunette wearing yellow. "Hey Selphie!"

The girl turned around, smiling brightly when her eyes met mine. "Migaru!" I met her halfway as she ran over.

"Do you know where I can find some rope or cloth lying around?"

"Hm…" She leaned over on her other leg, crossing her arms and pondering with her eyes closed. After a moment, she opened her eyes, standing straight. "Oh! I think there's some where Tidus is practicing." She pointed up to the sandy blonde haired boy on a barred ledge, swinging his red staff around. "Ask him if you can't find it there."

"Thanks a lot." With that, I trailed over near the small pond, climbed up the ladder, and made it to where Tidus practiced.

"Hey Migaru!" The boy called enthusiastically, continuing his practice as always. "Have you seen Riku? He's supposed to take me, Selphie, and Wakka on today!"

"No actually…" I answered, spotting the rope and cloth that I needed. I saw his boat, but the male was nowhere to be found, as far as I could see.

"He can't run away from us forever!" He yelled with determination, waving his staff in the air before swing is back and forth again.

"I'm sure he can't." I chuckled before leaving him. Walking to the other side of the island, I laid down the supplies on the raft, waiting for Kairi to come over and take inventory. Lazily waking over even slower than usual back to the front of the island, I found said redhead hopping off to the dock with a huge grin on her face. I raised an eyebrow before following her eyes. There, I noticed that she was staring at Sora, happily walking over to him as he started rising up. Yawning, he laid right back down in time to see a hovering Kairi.

"Whoa!" He brunette yelled, shooting up this time, much to the joy of the giggling redhead. "Give me a break Kairi."

"Sora you lazy bum," She said, putting her hands behind her back. "I knew I'd find you snoozing down here."

"No!" He said, trying to play the victim. "This huge black THING swallowed me up! I couldn't breathe, I couldn't-ow!" The brunette was interrupted by a light punch to the head by the girl.

"Are you still dreaming?"

"It wasn't a dream." He replied, unsure himself. "Or was it? I don't know."

"Hey, there." I called, waving one of my arms for them to see as I made it to them. "You HAVE to get yourself together Sora. Quit trying to make things up."

"No way, I'm serious Migaru!" Sora urged on, not quite pleading yet. "What was that place? So bizarre..." I looked over to Kairi who, in return, rolled her eyes, not believing it for a second.

"Yea, sure." She told him as she walked over to the shore. Sora looked over at her, then peered to me as well.

"Say, Kairi," He began. "Migaru, what were your home towns like? You know, where you grew up?" I glanced at the male, a puzzled look on my face.

"Have you already forgotten?" I questioned him. "I've got no memory of where I came from."

"And I told you before." Kairi answered. "I don't remember."

"Nothing at all?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing but my name." I said, shrugging my shoulders.

"You two ever wanna go back?" I pondered over this while Kairi spoke confidently after a moment of thought.

"Well, I'm happy here."

"Really..." He trailed on.

"But you know," The redhead continued. "I wouldn't mind going to see it."

"Who knows...?" I finally responded. "I don't think I would even know if I was there or not."

"And if we _did _find it, I'd like to see it." He answered both of us, getting ready to stand. "Along with any other worlds out there. I want to see 'em all!"

"So what are we waiting for?"

"The raft, that's all." I replied to her rhetorical question.

"Of course."

"Hey, aren't you guys forgetting about me?" The three of us turned to see the boy Tidus trying to find carrying a heavy looking log around his arm.

"Oh right, and our fourth member." I brushed the tip of my nose, wondering how he of all people could escape my mind.

"Losing some more of your memory already?" Riku teased. "You _have _to keep it together."

"Oh very funny." I raised an eyebrow with a small grin.

"So," He continued. "I guess I'm the only one working on the raft."

"No way!" I argued. "I just put some supplies away just a minute ago."

"Point taken." He nodded, walking straight to Kairi as he tossed the log onto an unsuspecting Sora. The brunette yelped in surprise as the weight of the dismembered tree threw him to the sand. "But you're just as lazy as he is." Kairi giggled as I helped Sora throw the log off of him and Riku sat down.

"So you noticed." The redhead became more enthusiastic as she made a suggestion. "Ok, we'll finish it together!"

"Weren't we _already _supposed to finish it together?" I asked, taking my place on the sand beside Sora. Unfortunately, the girl ignored me and continued.

"I'll race you!" Both Sora and Riku looked to each other, eyebrows raised.

"Huh?"

"What, are you kidding?"

"The boys have spoken." I started to lie down on the sand, putting my arms behind my head. But Kairi wouldn't let up.

"Ready?" She said without warning. "Go!" The next thing I knew, after a moment of silence, was the two boys sprinting off as fast as they could. As I put my head up in shock, I found Kairi running behind them as well. I shot up, huffing as I tried to catch up with at full speed.

"W-wait!" I gasped, using too much energy to catch up as I still trailed behind Kairi. "I thought we weren't r-racing!" After getting everything situated, we all decided to spend the rest of our time for the day at one of the separated islands, where Kairi, with Sora, sat on a bent palm tree while Riku leaned against it and I sat on the sand, resting my head on it.

"So," Sora opened. "Migaru and Kairi's homes are out there somewhere, right?"

"We can't be sure." I told him, my arms crossed.

"But it could be, nonetheless." Riku looked down to my direction as if trying to convince me that it was. "We'll never know by staying here." I sighed.

"But how far could a raft take us?" Sora questioned his best friend.

"Who knows? If we have to, we'll think of something else."

"So, suppose you get to another world." Kairi interjected with a light giggle. "What would you do there?" The boy uttered a small hum in thought before answering.

"Well, I haven't really thought about it."

"That's surprising." I looked up at him, my brow furrowed in a bit of shock.

"It's just that…" Riku continued. "I've always wondered why we're here on this island. If there are any other worlds out there, why did we end up on this one?" That was a question I couldn't answer myself. "And suppose there are other worlds…Then ours is just a little piece of something much greater. So we could have just as easily ended up somewhere else, right?"

"You have me there." I replied.

"I don't know." Sora said at the exact same time as Riku nodded in comprehension.

"Exactly. That's why we need to go out there and find out." He began to walk out further on the very small island. "Just sitting here won't change a thing. It's the same old stuff. So let's go."

"You've been thinking about this a lot, haven't you?" Kairi asked.

"Thanks to you two." He turned to the both of us. "If you hadn't come here Kairi, I probably would've never thought of any of this. And if Migaru hadn't come, I might have given up on the whole thing. Thanks you two."

"You're welcome." The redhead tittered as I simply nodded. Calling it a day, we all went back home, the boys staying behind for whoever knows what. The next day, as we docked out boats, we noticed that Sora and Riku's vessels already there, but we couldn't find them in the front of the island at all.

"I'll check the back." Kairi said.

"I'm going to look for everything else." I told her. "I'm sure their doing the same."

"Remember." The redhead instructed. "We need one Seagull egg, three mushrooms, two coconuts, and three fish."

"You said water before, didn't you?"

"Yea, but I was going to get Sora to do that." She snickered. "I wouldn't think you knew the difference between saltwater and fresh water."

"Saltwater?"

"See?"

"Fine, I'll get some of the rest." I huffed, taking my leave.

"Hey, hold on a second." She called. "You can't climb right?" My mind wandered back to my failed attempts when I tried to climb trees before or anything without a ladder; all resulting in failure.

"Nope…" I answered bluntly.

"Then I'll leave the coconuts and egg to Riku." All that was left for me were the mushrooms and fish.

"No problem." With that, she gave me a net to catch the fish and we both went our separate ways. Catching the fish weren't a big problem, but the fish were as they continued to keep jumping and swimming everywhere, soon leaving me drenched in water. As soon as I caught them many minutes later, I begrudgingly strapped them to the raft, the fish themselves in the water under the net. "Now for the mushrooms." Bounding off, I remembered spotting one in the back of the island.

"Aw, man!" I heard as I picked the first mushroom under the broken bridge, careful not to break it. "Now the score's one to three!"

"Alright, we're naming the raft Highwind." Score…raft…I finally put the pieces together.

"Were you two doing the usual again?" I ran over to the ledge above me, where it was taking-or rather took- place. I raised my arms up and grabbed the wood on the top of the ledge, trying to pull myself up but to no avail.

"Hold on." I heard Riku above me, raising me up.

"And here I was, working hard." I said, holding the mushroom up to them.

"We could tell…" Sora looked at me, noticing that I was soaked. "Did you go for a swim?"

"Sorry," Kairi gleefully apologized before I could answer. "We were figuring out a name for our raft."

"And it's Highwind? Whose idea was that?"

"Mine." Riku stated. "We raced for it. I bet you can tell who won."

"So I was right when I said the usual…" I mumbled as I saw Sora glare at Riku.

"Alright, back to work you guys." Kairi directed us to our respective jobs. It wasn't long until I found the second mushroom behind a large rock.

"Now all that's left is the last one." I said to myself. The _secret place is the last place to check,_ I thought, hurrying over. As I was near the entrance, I couldn't help but hear a small scraping on the wall. At the entrance, I watched Sora stand, picking up exactly what I needed. I stepped closer, not getting far at all when Sora looked to his left in alarm.

"Wh-who's there?" He questioned in a frightened voice. Right before I wanted to say it was me and he had no reason to be frightened, another voice piped up.

"I've come to see the door to this world." A strong chill ran its way up my spine, not stopping there as it dispersed through my entire body. Thinking fast, I backed away from the entrance, hiding behind a stone.

"Huh?"

"This world has been connected." The voice continued as my breathing started to speed up.

_What's going on?_ I could almost hear my heartbeat because of how rapidly it was pounding. I was absolutely terrified, but I hadn't the slightest idea why.

"Wh-what are you talking about?" Sora stammered.

"Tied to the darkness…soon to be completely eclipsed." The voice sounded like someone I had heard before…but I couldn't place where it was from at all. It wasn't from the island, I could be sure of that. But it sounded so familiar…

"Well, whoever you are," Sora started. "Stop freaking me out like this. Huh?" He seemed to have finally noticed something. "W-where did you come from?"

"You do not yet know what lies behind the door."

"So, you're from another world!" Sora concluded. My head was thinking so many things at once that I didn't even have the time say anything against his statement.

_Another world?_

_That's just NOT possible._

_But he's right there._

_There could be another reason-_

_Then where am I from?_

"There is so very much to learn. You understand so little." The robed man's voice snapped me out of my thoughts, going on with his opinions.

"Oh yeah? Well, you'll see. I'm gonna get out and learn what's out there!"

"A meaningless effort. One who knows nothing can understand nothing." As Sora turned to a large door, the robed figure looked straight towards me. At that moment, I dashed out of the stone cave and several feet away from it when I made it out. I breathed hard not only because of the over exertion of my energy when I ran away, but from fear as well.

"Migaru?" I screamed and turned around to see Riku flinch in surprise. "Are you alright?"

"O-o-of c-course!" I sputtered nervously. "W-why might yo-you ask t-that?"

"You're pale. And nervous." He said bluntly.

"Nervous?" I laughed, trying my best to hide my fear. I didn't want to drag anyone into something I couldn't explain. "No, I'm fine actually. But if you could do me a favor and hand these to Kairi-" I quickly shoved the mushrooms into his also gloved hands. "I'd really appreciate it. I'm not feeling very good right now. I think I'll go home." Anywhere but this island was fine at that moment. Speeding over and unhooking the rope that kept my boat tied to the island and boarding it. Turning around only once, I waved to the confused silver haired male. Making it to my room without having to see anyone, I lied down on my bed, clutching my bangs as I turned my body, my back facing the bed as a result.

"What was that?" I muttered, not feeling my heart slowing down. That feeling; where else have I felt that before? Just who was that man, and where did he come from? I continued thinking up questions until my eyes grew heavy, only realizing that I had fallen into a deep sleep when the sound of a loud thunder clap woke me up. Looking out of the window, I found that there was indeed a storm. But this one was strange; it looked like it was staying on the island.

_With a storm like this, the raft could be swept away, _I thought as another clap of thunder erupted from far away. Looking down to the water, I noticed Kairi halfway to the island, probably thinking the same thing I was. What was she thinking? She couldn't go alone like that, she could get hurt!

"The island…the raft…Kairi…" I murmured, tightening my grip on my bed sheets. "I can't go back…" I really couldn't. What would happen if that man was still there? The robed man himself and the words he spoke, they were all so strange; why did I find them so frightening?

_This world has been connected._

"Absolutely _nothing _will go wrong." I fortified my resolve as I snuck out of the window and back down to get my boat, heading to the island. When I arrived, I found Sora just arriving himself. "Sora?"

"Migaru, you're here to?" I nodded to his question as he pointed two floating figures in the water. "Riku's boat. And Kairi's!"

"I saw her on her way from my window." I informed him. Just then, we noticed small black blobs materialize out of the ground. Those blobs began to take form, sprouting up yellow glowing eyes and a very familiar form. Both Sora and I looked as though we've seen those things before. I however, backed away, trembling.

"W-w-what?!" I yelled in alarm as they came closer.

"Come on!" Sora yelled, grabbing my wrist and pulling me along as we ran to get away from them. Pulling out the wooden sword he always used to fight from the raft, he began swinging away at the small creatures. With only fingerless gloves as my weapons, the most I could do was run with the brunette and pull him away from their attacks while I dodged as well. As we both had gotten further, I observed the swings of Sora's sword, finding that they did nothing.

"What are these things?" I thought aloud, pushing Sora ahead, one of the creatures missing the two of us by a hair.

"Look! There's Riku!" Sora pointed to the small separate island that we usually spent the end of our days on. "I bet Kairi's with him too!" We both raced to the silver haired boy, who stood nonchalantly in the middle of the small island, to find that our redheaded friend was nowhere to be found.

"I don't see her…" It was good that Riku was safe, but Kairi could have been anywhere. Unlike Riku, the redhead couldn't take care of herself in a situation like this.

"Where's Kairi!" Sora demanded. "I thought she was with you!"

"The door has opened…" Riku droned, ignoring his friend.

"What?"

"The door has opened you two!" He turned to face us, an excited smile on his face. "Now we can go see the outside world!"

"What are you talking about? We've gotta find Kairi!"

"Kairi's coming with us!" The words he spoke silenced the both of us.

"Where is she?" I started. "I don't see her anywhere!"

"Once we step through," He continued. "We might not be able to come back. We may never see our parents again. There's no turning back. But this may be our only chance. We can't let fear stop us."

"Fear…?" I repeated, thinking back to the recent events of today.

"I'm not afraid of the darkness!" He held out his hands to both of us.

"Riku…" Sora trailed. Instantly, darkness started to surround his lower body, as well as ours.

"Sora!" I called as the ink-like substance engulfed me completely.

"Migaru!" I heard him call. "Hang on!" But that was the last I had heard of the boy until I lost consciousness.


	2. The First Town

**I'm so sorry I've been late with this chapter- I'm not dead you know- I just had a REALLY bad case of block and had to step down for a bit. But this chapter is up now! Remember! I don't own any part of Kingdom Hearts but Migaru! Enjoy!**

Groggily opening my eyes, I found nothing but darkness. After realizing that I was face down on what seemed like a stone floor, I flopped over, my arms splayed out beside me with my palms faced upward. As my vision cleared, what I found was not the night sky of the island, but the starry sky of somewhere new. Sitting up, I looked around, surveying my surroundings. There was a small fountain with glass shielding the two dog figurines that resided inside to my right. Glancing to my left, I saw a banister that looked like it led to a door. Beside the banister was a small alleyway, which led to something out of my line of sight. In front of me, there was a very large wooden door with thin metal platings along the middle and ends.

Standing up, I began to realize that I was alone. The last thing I remembered was going back to the islands to save the raft, but these creatures came up from the ground and started to attack us. I sighed outwardly as I remembered the dark material engulfing Sora, Riku and I.

"Sora?" I called out skyward, recalling that they were both with me. "Riku!" If I was here, then they had to be as well, right? The only problem was, where was here? Walking on the purple tiled floor, I climbed the stairs and opened the door that revealed a different room entirely. I had entered an alleyway that looked nothing like the previous room, with the only similarity being no ceiling. Peering up at the night sky as I made my way to another set of stairs, an almost inaudible warping sound caught my attention. What I saw when I looked straight forward, was a black hole open up, revealing a small figure that landed with a metal clang. My blood ran cold as I noticed the same glowing yellow eyes that were on the creatures from before were being sported on this one.

Backing away from the knight-like creatures, I started to turn away, almost in the motion of a run. The monster, on the other hand, had a completely different idea as it sped towards me in quite a playful fashion. The last thing I saw before I turned around was it winding up for what looked like a kick, but as I faced forward, my back turned to the attacker, a red and orange object a few feet away caught my eye.

"Get down!" An unfamiliar voice called. My body seemed to move faster than my mind as I dived to the ground, the bright object speeding over me. Unconsciously putting my hands protectively over my head, the warmth from the ball skimmed the top of the material of my gloves. As I landed on the stone floor, one other figure jumped over me. Quickly turning behind me, I found the creature seemingly burning in front of a young redheaded man, mostly in black with the exception of a red symbol on the back of his jacket and his multiple belts with an odd-looking sword who had just landed. The man put his finger on the trigger of his blade, pointing it to the creature, whose flames where dying out. The fire that engulfed it soon died out, just for it to be destroyed by another that the young man casted. Slowly turning around, he looked to me, slinging his sword over his shoulder, a stern look on his scarred face. "Are you alright?" He asked.

"I-" My words were cut off by several black holes emerging around the both of us. More metal monsters, as well as two or three larger ones, seemingly crashed to the ground as they landed, shaking the floor. Feeling something on my forearm, I glanced down, realizing that there was the same monster from the islands on me. Shooting up, I yelled as I flailed my arm around, trying to get it off. At last, I flew off, noticing that some of its body started to fade as the brunette man slashing it into nothingness. He glanced over his shoulder to me with an eyebrow raised before he spun around to the bigger enemies, his sword at the ready. At that moment, the smaller, bug-like monster jumped at me.

"No!" My first instinct was to slap it away, which was exactly what I did. What I didn't except however, was for the creature to fly back, quickly fading away as soon as it made contact. My eyes widened in surprise, backing away until I was back to back to the young man.

"Do you have any fighting experience?" I heard him behind me.

"No?!" I replied, panicking as I put my balled hands up to my chest. He groaned sharply, frustrated. More leaped in front of us as the man swung his sword, protecting us both. He missed one, winding up as it prepared to strike. "Watch out!"

Suddenly it disappeared, a small star-shaped knife in its place. Soon, a good half of them vanished in the same way.

"Squall, I'm here!" I looked up to where the voice came from to find a girl with a short green top and pale shorts descending from one of the roofs, a determined smile on her face and a familiar star-shaped knife in her hands.

"Yuffie!" The young man named Squall called out to her. "Get this girl out of here, and find a safe place."

"Got it!" Without warning, Yuffie's orange gloved hand grabbed my arm, pulling me along with her. "Come on, let's go!" As we ran, she held a bigger throwing knife close to her. It began to grow and acquire a blue hue before she threw it at the monsters. Some of the creatures were right in our tails. As soon as one caught on to my pant leg, I screamed and pushed my palm to it.

"Get away!" I called, a familiar fire scorching the small beast. This time however, the bug-like creature faded away into ashes, its dark makeup disintegrating into the air instead of simply burning. At last we both turned a corner, me looking back at the young man while Yuffie led me into a long and narrow hallway with various multicolored doors.

"They won't follow us here." She said confidently, still looking around to see if she could have been wrong and pushing her metal headband up on her forehead. "You okay there kid?"

"Um..." Once again, I was at a loss for words, not really sure WHAT exactly was happening. "I think so." As soon as I answered, the brown eyed girl looked to me, trading her serious expression for a more happy and carefree one. "We sure gave them a run for their money, huh?" She then flashed me an energetic smile.

"Y-yea..."

"Well anyway, we should get you somewhere safer." With that, Yuffie started off, assuming that I would follow her. Looking back to where we had just come from, I peered over to the short haired girl.

"But," I started, concerned. "What about that man?" Yuffie looked back at me; her hand paused in the air as she was in the motion of grabbing a doorknob.

"You mean Squa-err, Leon?" She clarified, faltering on his name for whatever reason. "He'll be just fine. He's been doing this a whole lot longer than I have, I can tell you that." The black haired girl continued her motions, now grabbing the knob of the door, twisting and opening it as she looked at me, excepting me to follow.

"Oh…" I sighed silently, following Yuffie into a room that slightly resembled a hotel bunk.

"But…" I looked to Yuffie, who was glancing up at the ceiling with a bored countenance. "They did seem a bit overwhelming." It was then that I began to worry, more than I should have about someone I had didn't even know.

"They…did…?"

"Yea. However…" She began walking around the room, her hands intertwined behind her back. "In one way or another, Squall can get out of there if it's too much to handle. Besides-" Spinning around to me, Yuffie flashed me a grin with a wink, holding up her thin arm, mustering up what little muscle she had on it while patting her biceps with the opposite hand. "We can just come to his rescue if he needs help, not that he needs it anyway. We'd be in and outta there in no time!"

"What?" I asked, raising an eyebrow and pointing to myself. "I can't fight."

In return, the female quirked a brow as well. "What do you mean? You've got those gloves handy, right?"

"My gloves?" I looked at them, finding that instead of a glowing violet on the key like they usually were, an unfamiliar deep red took its place.

"How they can expel the darkness like they did. Or don't tell me that it's just you doing that?"

"They did?"

"You sure ask a lot of questions." Yuffie giggled to herself, finally taking a seat at a bed. "But it seems you don't know much about those things."

"No, I don't actually." I slipped one of them off, examining the key as I tugged on the hems in order to clearly see it.

"In any case, we should get to someplace safe."

"I thought you said we already were?"

"Oh sorry." Yuffie scratched the back of her head playfully, an apologetic expression on her face as I slipped my glove back on. "I meant safer. The Heartless are known for slipping through the cracks. But-" She hopped off of the bed with a small sigh, landing with her legs together and her spread arms at chest level, her upper body bent ever-so-slightly in front of her. "There's one place even those monsters haven't gotten to, and that's where I'm taking you." As I processed her explanation, one word stood out to me- the names of the creatures.

"Heartless?" I asked as she and I walked out into another opening of the hotel room, entering another hotel room and onto a balcony.

"Yep. Those without hearts." Without warning, the black haired girl plucked me off of the ground, shifting me to her back as she jumped high, landing on the red-tiled roof of one of the buildings. As wrapped my arms around her neck while she continued jumping from roof to roof, I noticed that we were in an area that was different from the places I had seen in this world. World?

"I'm in another world?" I realized, looking around.

"So you _are_ new." I heard Yuffie in front of me. "It figures, you sure sounded like you didn't know what was going on."

"But…" I continued. "I don't understand… how did we even get here…?"

"I'm almost certain that your world had the same situation ours did."

"What happened to your world?"

"Swallowed up by the Heartless." She started to explain. "That's how most, if not all of us got here, Traverse Town that is. This place is like a haven for people who've lost their worlds."

"A haven... " I murmured, deciding to pose a question. "When a world is consumed by these...Heartless things, is it possible for more than one person from the same world to make it here?"

"Of course!" Yuffie chuckled as she answered. "I don't see why not."

Thank goodness, I thought to myself. That means even Sora, and the others else were here as well! Riku really did know what he was talking about. But, how did he know that all of this was going to happen? I would have to ask him when I found him. Either way, I still owed the silver haired boy an apology for doubting him. He was even right about Kairi.

"Who's we anyway?" Yuffie's question snapped me out of my thoughts as we ascended from a nearby balcony. "You're not the only one, right? How many are there?" A low hum escaped from my lips as I pondered over the question she posed. Let's see... there was Riku, Kairi...

"Three." I finally answered.

"Good." She murmured quietly. "Then we'll have to be able to track them down."

"Track who down?"

"More like track _what_ down." She corrected herself for my sake. "You see, Leon and I were tasked with looking for a type of weapon. It almost looks like a giant key."

"What's wrong with your weapons?" I didn't see anything wrong with a sword that shot out fire and the many star shaped tools that Yuffie probably had at her disposal compared to a something else, especially a blunt, oversized key.

"It's not what's wrong with our weapons," The girl explained as she landed on a roof, stopping most likely to take a break. "It's what this key can do that our weapons can't."

"Can it open things?" I asked, using its value as a key into full play.

"That too, but it's the only weapon capable of completely destroying the Heartless." My eyes widened at the thought of the creatures that took seemingly so many people's homes away finally being destroyed. "It has the power to return the worlds back the way they were, and it can keep 'em like that for good."

"Can such a weapon really do all that?" I asked in disbelief.

"Yes, but it's in short supply; always has been." She looked away from me and into the distance, the lights from below illuminating her now serious face. "You see, the Keyblade's pretty choosey about its master, so it won't pick just anyone. We don't even know what someone has to have to even get one. It's a mystery really."

"A mystery…" I repeated, peering over to the small sum of people going about their business.

"Hey, that was probably the first thing you said to me that wasn't a question." The girl laughed, her spirits lightened. With that, she jumped down without me, enticing me to follow suit. "Here we are. Anymore questions kiddo?"

"No, I think I've got the long and short of it." I replied, glancing behind me to find a small shop with kite shaped windows on each side of the door. I noticed that above the doors was a sign saying Accessories in quirky little letters.

"In you go then." Yuffie urged me inside, proceeding to call behind me. "Hey Cid, you mind if I brought you some company?"

"They here to buy some-" A blonde man behind the counter turned around, revealing a piece of straw in his mouth and a face much older than my own. His semi bright face clouded immediately as he looked at me, sighing in disappointment. "Another one? What's with all these kids hangin' around anyway?"

"Another one's been taken." Yuffie murmured, softly pushing me forward. "You'll be fine if you stay in here. Although I bet you could hold your own with some practice." As I took my seat on the leather couch beside of a glass table containing sellable items, Yuffie walked over and whispered to me when the man didn't bother to listen, instead tending to his accessories. "Don't worry about Cid; he'll warm up soon enough. I hope you find your friends" With that, she walked off, but not before turning back to me at the door. "Hey, I never caught your name-"

"Migaru." I said simply. In response, she nodded with a grin, pushing the door open in front of her.

"Take care Migaru, I'm gonna go look for Squall. Don't get into too much trouble, ok?" Without waiting for an answer, she exited the room.

* * *

"So, your world too, huh?"

"Hm?" I stopped examining my violet keyed gloves to avoid the awkward silences for about the umpteenth time, looking up to the owner of the voice; Cid. It had only been a few of minutes that I had stayed in the room, and so far, there was no hint of conversation. But as soon as a customer left, his paid-for bracelet in a small white plastic bag, he decided to make small talk.

"Throw me a bone here- your world kid." The blonde repeated, swiping the button of his nose with his hand before placing it back on his hip. "It was taken over, right?"

"I…think so." I told him, unsure myself. "There were Heartless, that I'm sure of. But the last thing I remember is some kind of darkness swallowing me up, and the next I knew, I was here." I suddenly looked to the jewelry in the table before continuing. "Although, I don't think I can call that place my world."

"Ran away, eh? I never took you for the rebel type."

"No." I said bluntly, turning my gaze over to him with slightly angry eyes. Finally, my gaze softened. "I don't know how I got there, or how I could get off of that world, not that I wanted to."

"No transportation?"

"We were going to use a raft-"

"Ha! Lotta good that's gonna do ya."

"We were going to think of something else if that didn't work."

"So your world is still out there?" He asked, suddenly opening the cabinet behind him, fishing for something. "Just give me the coordinates and I could get someone to get you there in a couple of days, no problem."

"I… don't exactly remember…where my original world is…either." I mumbled quietly, but clear enough for him to hear me.

"Amnesia huh? Not the strangest I've seen, but it's up there." He closed the cabinet at my response, sighing and putting his hands on his front table. "So you end up in another world, with memory loss on top of that. You haven't got the best luck out there, do you?"

"I guess not…" Now that he mentioned it, I don't think I had much luck to start with, not that I could remember anyway. At that moment, the blonde's eyes widened as, though he had just remembered something important.

"Say kid, what was that world you were in last?"

"It was on an island-"

"And you're looking for someone, right?"

"Three people." I corrected, surprised that he listened to Yuffie and my conversation.

"Three people…" He trailed on, thinking hard. "Hey kid, what's your name?"

"Migaru." At last, the man let out a long and loud sigh, placing his arm over his eyes, tilting his head back.

"Say, do you know a little squirt about this tall," He started, not taking his arm from over his eyes, but using his free one to measure a height a bit shorter than me. "Name's Sora?"

"S-Sora?" My eyes widened at the sound of my friend's name. "Yes I know a boy named Sora! Did you see him? Along with a boy and girl named Riku and-"

"Calm down Migaru." He stood straight once more, putting his hands in front of him. "He asked the same thing. The only two I saw were you, no Riku and no Kairi."

"Well, one's good enough for now right…?" I tried to lift my spirits. "Besides, if Sora's here, then they all have-"

"Slow your road there." Cid interrupted. "Just because you two are in the same place, doesn't mean the other two are."

"What…?" I practically deflated. "But Yuffie said-" I stopped short when I realized exactly what I asked her. She said it was possible for more than one person to make it to the same world, but she never said that's what always happened.

_Either way, one of my friend's is out there!_ I thought, thinking of how his wooden sword did nothing against the Heartless. The brunette could be in danger, and I could do nothing about it. Maybe not nothing… I realized, looking at my gloves, remembering what Yuffie told me.

How they can expel the darkness like they did.

Although I bet you could hold your own with some practice.

I had even seen them at work myself, when I swatted a Heartless away, making it fade. Balling my fist up as I tugged at my gloves, I looked at the door with a determined gleam in my eye.

"There's no other time like the present." I told myself, trying to escape the fear I had of the Heartless creatures.

"Kid, what are you thinking of-" Cid began before I cut him off.

"Thanks for everything Cid, I'll see you later!" With that, I ran out of his door before he could protest, not stopping until I found a larger door. Pushing it open, I gasped softly, finding that this was the same place where I had met Squall and Yuffie. Not wasting any time, I ran down the stairs into an open area, only noticing when I arrived near a fountain that my heart rate sped up significantly.

"This is probably the most reckless I've ever been…" I said to myself, pulling off one of my gloves and sighing. Merely seconds later, my glove faded away into dark streaks, quickly taking form on my hand and staying there. Blinking twice, I tried to take them off in a panic, but with no luck. "That's never happened before…!" It was then that the Heartless began to appear in a small group. I clumsily tried to form a fighting stance, my left hand close to my chest and the other away from my side, my knees bent slightly.

"Now or never I guess." The first Heartless, a knight-like creature, lunged at me too soon. With a yelp, I slapped it, my hand connecting with its torso and sending it flying. The last I saw of it was its body was fading away. The other Heartless began to move closer as I gained more confidence, seeing as how I could defend myself. That was until more of them appeared through black holes; an exceptionally large one landing once again with a thud. Backing away, I ran forward and tried hitting it, but its large body only let out a barely noticeable amount of darkness. Instead, the Heartless grabbed me by my torso, slowly lifting my struggling body into the air.

"L-Let go!" I yelled in vain. As I grabbed on to its enlarged hand with all the force I could muster, I began to think that coming to this place alone was a bad idea. But it threw me weakly, making me land back first into the stone floor. Rolling back up, I saw that its hand began to fade faster than the other Heartless I handled. Confused, I racked my brain to find out what was different from then to now as I struggled to take care of the smaller Heartless. I recalled grabbing its hand with more force than usual…was that it…?

As one of the smaller Heartless launched itself towards me, I took a chance, wound up, and punched it square in the middle. Force seemed to have worked, for the bug creature faded completely in a matter of seconds. Turning to the front of the larger Heartless, I took another running start and jumped at it straight in the middle. Sure enough, the punch that I had thrown made it through the middle, where I slipped and fell flat on the ground behind the Heartless that now proceeded to fade away. Scrambling up, I looked to the increasing number of Heartless appearing. Keeping up with the attacks, I gradually found my own pace, becoming more confident with my swings. After what seemed like a lifetime of fighting, I was pushed back by the last Heartless I was up against, another large bodied creature. With a huff, I charged, jumping up and struck its head.

As it faded away, I landed, but lost my footing and fell on my rear. Not bothering to stand up, I leaned back until I fully lay down on the floor, tired. When my breathing finally evened out, I sat up, trying to shake off the slight pain in my body as a result of fighting those things. I figured I didn't have to worry much about Squall and Yuffie fighting them, since someone as inexperienced as I took them down, albeit a few injuries. But what about the others?

"Sora," I sighed to myself. "Where are you?" At the thought of my friend still being on this world, I stood up, fully energized, finding the three to be my drive. "I'll find you guys." Exploring more and more of the town, I began to get more used to fighting Heartless, but not fully getting over the uneasy feeling they always gave me when they came. In time, after passing under the hotel balconies, through a den of small dogs and various shops, I made it back to the familiar red stoned grounds of the safest part of the town. I groaned, frustrated, as I turned the corner to find Cid's shop, finding that I was right back where I started.

"Hold it!" I familiar voice called as I heard the door behind me open. Turning around, I saw Cid running over to me with two objects in his hand. "Next time you leave so suddenly, I won't be in such a giving mood."

"Sorry about that." I laughed nervously. "Giving?"

"Kids…" He muttered, scowling a bit as he chewed on his toothpick with more force than needed. "I was gonna give you this before ya left. Although, it looks like you need it now." Lifting a glass bottle in the air, the glass disappeared, leaving a small glowing green star to hover above me, taking most the pain from my battles away as it vanished. Now that I thought of it, I would always see Kairi with a few back on the islands, giving one to Sora after a battle with Riku.

"That was a potion." I realized.

"At least you've got some basic knowledge." He smirked, handing me the second potion. "Just remember, it isn't advanced, so it can't heal every little injury you get."

"I've got it. Thanks again Cid."

"No problem kid. I'll be in my shop if ya need me." As he started off towards his store he added, "And don't do anything stupid." I laughed, nodding and putting the potion away as he turned back around.

"Now where is a place in here that I haven't checked?" I asked myself. I was almost positive that there wasn't any place left to look. That was until I recalled where woke up. The purple tiled room was the only place I didn't look, but the problem was, I didn't know how to find it. I didn't know where Yuffie had taken me when we ran away, therefore I was stuck. Sitting on the steps in front of the accessory shop, I tried to remember, eventually getting up and continued on. At that moment, something brown and black caught my eye. Turning back, I found that it was a large door beyond Cid's store and to the side. I'd never seen it before, or rather I didn't realize it was there in all the confusion. Being that it was the only place I didn't check, it was probably the place where I had come from. Stepping up to the door, I struggled a bit before finally pushing it open, only to hear screaming from above. I looked up in alarm to see two figures barreling toward another figure; a brunette.

I closed my eyes at impact, opening them when I heard the crash. As I did, the three figures, now collapsed on the ground, came into view. My eyes widened significantly as I found that below the two that had fallen, was a familiar boy.

"The key!" The two seemingly cheered as I raced to the three.

"Sora!" I called, racing to the three, not bothering to listen to the two.

"Migaru?!" Sora realized, trying to get up. At once, a sudden rumbling was felt under our feet as they stood up in a panic. All of a sudden, cube-like pillars rose higher than I could jump, blocking all exits before knight-like Heartless filled the room. As the three readied their weapons, Sora stood in front of me in a defensive position. What was in his hands wasn't a wooden sword, but a blunt, key-like weapon…

"Is that," I started in awe. "The key they were talking about?"

"Stay behind me Migaru!" Sora instructed, putting his hand in front of me as he peered around hastily to see if any Heartless bothered to attack us first.

"There's no need to worry about me anymore." I told him, prompting him to look to me with a questioning expression. To show him what I meant, I ran forward to an attacking Heartless that had aimed at an unsuspecting Sora.

"Hold on!" He yelled, just swiveling his head as I landed a punch against its kick, making it fade into nothingness.

"I've actually been worrying about you, what with that wooden sword you carried around." I explained, wary of my surroundings, but still smiling at him as he slashed two coming at him. "But I guess we can both hold our own now."

"Don't give up!" We heard the two others call before we both flashed one another smiles, separating at the same time. As I fought, the faces of the other two finally came into view, surprising me when I found that the taller one had the features of a dog, while the other had those of a duck's.

I guess there are more things to a world than just its exterior… I thought, as the short one finished off the last Heartless. The four of us regrouped, each meeting at the center before a loud crash behind the tall one caught all off our attention. At once, what we all found were violet metal limbs quickly joined together with a clank, making a full armored body with the same symbol on its chest as some of the other Heartless. Finally, one more body part, the head, sped down, crashing into its torso before slightly rising, rotating with its whole body.

The armor wasted no time in spinning its arms around itself, causing us to either back away or deflect it. I somehow managed to grab one of its hands, the force of the spin almost knocking me on my feet while I held an iron grip. The hand didn't fade nearly as fast, even with the amount of force I used, but it was still effective. Around me, Sora and the others began taking down the legs and other hand with attacks of their own. Suddenly, the hand slipped out of my grasp, flying at me without warning. With a yelp, I instinctively put my hand out in front of it. In addition, a familiar orange light shot out from beneath my palm, scorching the hand into nothing.

"Migaru, you okay?" Sora called, running over after he finished off a foot.

"I'm…fine." I answered, staring at my hands in bewilderment as the key on my gloves, fading from red to violet. Turning my attention back to the Heartless, I noted that the rest of its parts were gone, leaving just the torso. "Shall we?" I motioned to the solely spinning torso of the armored Heartless, deciding to question how fire came out of my hand later.

"Yea." The brunette grinned as we joined the other two. The armor slowed to a stop, soon winding up for another spin towards the tall one with the shield. Holding his shield up in defense, the Heartless bounced right off of his weapon mid-spin, bumping into Sora's key and straight to me. Winding my arm back, I punched it off course, where the short one blasted it with a fireball.

It seemed as though that was all the armor could take, for it began to shake violently before its head fell to the ground, all of it fading away and leaving a single heart to fly into the air.

"Phew…" I sighed in relief, sitting down and crossing my legs. Sora walked up to me, putting hand in front of me. Gratefully, I took it, standing up with his help.

"Nice one." He smiled, giving me a thumbs up. "Why didn't you tell us you could do that?"

"I had no idea myself." I laughed, rubbing the back of my neck. "You see-"

"Ahem." We turned our attention to the short one, clearing his through rather loudly. "If you're finished, we'd like to speak with him."

"Him?" I jerked my thumb over to Sora, who looked just as shocked as I did. After a moment, they explained everything.

* * *

"So, you were looking for me?" The brunette asked, pointing to himself. In return, they nodded.

"So _that's_ the Keyblade." I folded my arms in thought. "And went to Sora… what are the odds?"

"We were thinking the same thing!" A familiar voice called.

"Yuffie…and Squall." I realized, turning to them as they walked over to us.

"Leon." Squall corrected, redirecting his attention to Sora. They too have been seeking the wielder of the Keyblade."

"Hey, why don't you come with us on our vessel?" The dog suggested. "We can go to other worlds on our vessel."

"I wonder if we could find Riku or Kairi…" He moped, his head starting to lower. I put my hand on his shoulder for support, but the boy didn't change.

"Of course." The short one reassured us. Immediately, Sora looked to them expectantly. After a quick side conversation amongst themselves, they wheeled back over to us.

"Sora, go with them." Leon instructed. "Especially if you want to find your friends." I backed away from the group, frowning slightly. By the way this conversation was headed, I had a feeling that I wouldn't be coming along for the ride. They had found the wielder they were looking for, and that was Sora.

Sora noticed my hand off of his shoulder and glanced over to me. "Migaru, what's wrong?" I managed to form a small grin before sighing.

"I think my journey's been cut short." I informed him. Before explaining what I meant, Leon cut me off.

"Migaru, I think it'd be best to go with them too."

"What?" I asked him while the short one rather yelled it.

"Her weapon." He further explained.

"Well, whether it's her or those things is unclear right now." Yuffie chimed in.

"They have a unique power." He continued.

"I saw it myself!"

"It's as if they can break down the darkness."

"Hey Migaru," Yuffie called me over. "Have you ever come in contact with fire before?"

"Not at the island no…" I said, thinking. "Wait, there was that one time…"

"What happened?" She asked, putting her orange gloved hands to her bent knees to meet me at eye level.

"It was here, when that one Heartless that tried to attack me when Squ- Leon saved me. He told me to duck when he attacked it, and cast a fireball. It skimmed the top of my gloves, but that's it."

"And then?" Behind me, I heard someone tapping their foot impatiently on the ground. Ignoring them completely, I continued.

"My gloves glowed red…and the last time I held out my hand, fire came out…"

"Bingo! I knew I saw it! The first time I noticed it was when you panicked when we ran from those Heartless."

"But what does that mean?" Sora inquired.

"I think, in a way, she absorbed the fire to use on her own." She looked to Leon. "What do you think?" The young man simply nodded.

"I believe something like that," He peered over to the short one wearing blue. "Would be valuable to his majesty."

"Gawrsh," The tall one whispered quite loudly this time. "I think he's right."

"And if she's not going, then I'm not either!" Sora protested, much to his dismay.

"But Sora, we won't be able to find the others if one of use doesn't go with them!" I feared.

"We could always find another way!" With an exasperated groan, the duck finally answered.

"Oh fine!" He caved.

"Well then, it's settled I guess…" I said hesitantly, avoiding his glare. Even then, Sora still couldn't find it in himself to get out of his slump.

"Yeah," He answered sullenly. "I guess."

"But you can't come along looking like that." Blue said. "Understand? No frowning. No sad face. Okay?"

"Yeah, ya gotta look funny, like us!" His dog-featured comrade chimed in, prompting him to push his face out of view.

"This boat runs on happy faces."

"Happy?" Sora repeated, no change in his tone. Suddenly, the boy took a deep breath, finally smiling to our waiting faces. The only problem was that his face was rather…questionable with the way he forcefully grinned from ear to ear as his eyes became slightly above view.

Quickly swiveling my whole body, my hand flew to my mouth, covering up what snickers I could while the two began to chortle.

"That's one funny face!" The taller one yelled between guffaws. Soon getting the laughter out of my system, I rotated back to them with a very conspicuous grin on my face.

"Okay, why not?" Sora stated, his spirits finally lifted. "We'll go with you guys."

"Donald Duck." Blue put his hand in the air.

"Name's Goofy." His friend added.

"I'm Migaru." I followed suit.

"And I'm Sora." Sora put his hand in last.

"All for one and one for all." Hopefully, this could be a lasting friendship.

* * *

"Try putting more force into your strikes."

"More force, right." I responded to Yuffie's directions, throwing punches and kicks her way as she expertly blocked them.

"And…now!"

"Right!" At once, I drew my right hand forward. As usual, nothing happened. Yuffie stamped her foot, clearly more frustrated than I was.

"Why!?" She yelled. After Sora and I met the rest of the group, the new additions being Aerith and a cricket named Jiminy, Yuffie had taken me to train while Donald and Goofy talked to the brunette. So far, there was no luck in trying to willfully call the fire from my hand. "What are we not doing right?!"

"C-clam down…" I laughed nervously at the black haired female. "I'm sure I'll get it."

"We don't have much time though…" She trailed.

"How about I try?" We both turned our heads, finding Leon plodding up to us, holding his sword leisurely at his shoulder.

"Do what you want, I quit." Yuffie threw her hands up in defeat, walking over to the steps near the accessory shop, our training area being in front of said steps. Turning his attention back to me, he readied his weapon.

"Come at me with all you've got." He commanded. Stepping back a bit, I charged at the man, throwing a punch to his left. He easily dodged without the need to jump back, even keeping his hand in his pocket and swinging his sword at me. Leaping back, I tripped while on my heel and fell backward. Getting up quickly, I charged once more at the brunette.

"Don't carelessly charge into things!" Yuffie called, a few feet in front of me.

"Right!" I called back, being careful. I dashed beside Leon, slightly catching him off guard and landing a forceful punch to his back.

"Straighten out your wrist when you punch." He instructed. "Don't do that and you'll break it."

"Right."

"Now, envision the fire you want to cast."

"Envision…?" Yuffie asked bluntly. "Why didn't I think of that…?"

Doing as he said, I pictured a fireball growing, engulfing the air. Unbeknownst to me, the key on my glove flooded a bright red color, quickly expelling the violet color it once had. Leon peered at my gloves, nodding to himself.

"Cast it!" He demanded, stepping back.

"Fire!" I pushed my palm out, an orange light blossoming from my palm before shooting out to an expecting Leon, who slashed the blaze in two before it faded.

"Good." He nodded in approval, putting his sword back on his shoulder.

"I did it!" We both looked up to an excited Yuffie, who jumped for joy. Finally noticing us, she turned a faint shade of red before correcting yourself. "I mean, you did it! Hurray…"

"Migaru, you ready?" Sora called, waving his hand to me at the entrance of the town.

"Hold on!" Yuffie cried, tossing up a potion in the air, healing me from my training with her. "Now you're ready."

"Take this as well." Leon gave me another potion. "Good luck to both of you."

"I hope your memories return!" Yuffie added.

"Me too…" I smiled, knowing that Cid told them about my memory loss.

"Let's get going!" Sora urged Goofy, Donald and I.

"Not 'til we're ready!" Donald argued.

"Well, I see big adventures on our way." Jiminy said, hopping from Goofy's shoulder to mine. "Looks like it's up to me to keep track of it all in my journal!" The cricket opened his book eagerly. "I've even made up names for the Heartless we've encountered."

"Really?" I asked, almost straining my neck to look at him. "How diligent."

"You think?" He chuckled, embarrassed. "Well, if you want-"

"Hurry it up you guys!" Sora interrupted us, already at the door.

"Coming." I called back, shooting a grin at Jiminy. "We'd better go." I directed my attention to Donald and Goofy, who were just finishing up. Donald simply uttered a 'hmph' while Goofy laughed, both heading towards the door to the lead us to the Gummi Ship.


	3. Alice's Wonderland, Part 1

_**Hey guys! Guess what? I'm NOT dead! College enrollment and things like that ARE happening though, WITH the occasional writer's block of transitional things, but we all good! Remember! I don't own Kingdom Hearts! But wouldn't it be cool If I did? **_

"So, the Soldiers are the knight-like Heartless?"

"You bet!"

"And you named the bigger ones Large Bodies."

"Exactly!"

"In a way, all of these names will be easy to remember."

"Well thank you Migaru! I work hard to make just that possible."

"Oh, and one more thing?"

"And what would that be?"

"How long have we been falling?" My tone changed from interested to distress as I snapped back to reality from Jiminy's journal, huffing at the fact that we've had yet to land on solid ground. I cast my gaze downward, looking to the groundless bottom, then looking up, finding that I couldn't even see the Gummi ship anymore.

"You have me there." Jiminy laughed nervously, noticing the frustration building throughout the group, or rather everyone but Goofy.

"Too long!" Donald took the liberty of answering as he flailed his arms. Goofy yawned, having a better time out of all of us as he took this time to catch up on his sleep. Suddenly, we all flipped against our wills, having a chance to see the floor below.

"The floor?" I repeated verbally, the three of us glancing back down to find that there was indeed a red carpeted ground.

"I thought I'd never see that again." Sora breathed as we all landed on our feet one by one, feeling the gravity returning as soon as we hit the ground while Goofy fell flat on his stomach. I had to stifle a chuckle while Sora flinched and Donald shook his head in disappointment. But at that moment, a clothed white rabbit walking on its hind legs ran past us from seemingly nowhere. Taken aback, I looked around the circular room to see nothing but pictures and paintings resting on a brick wall.

"Oh, my fur and whiskers!" It yelled, holding up a gold pocket watch. "I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!"

"Where did he…?" I whispered to myself as he continued to panic, running down a hallway as fast as his short little legs could carry him.

"Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! I'm here, I should be there." Goofy managed to pick himself up as he Sora and Donald continued to watch him. "I'm late, I'm late, I'm late! The queen, she'll have my head for sure!"

"Um, Migaru…?" I heard Sora behind me as I proceeded to lightly knock on the wood and brick of the walls.

"Yea?"

"What are you doing?"

"Finding out where exactly that rabbit came from." I told him, sighing when I searched the whole perimeter. Finally, I turned to Donald and Goofy. "Do you guys know where he could've come from?"

"Why would we know that?" Donald asked suspiciously, folding his arms.

"Well, you and that rabbit a-" I decided to shut my mouth, rethinking my theory before I would get shipped right back to Traverse Town. Besides, we floated down here for an uncertain amount of time; I'm sure something like that shouldn't bother me much. Noticing Sora had gone ahead, we followed, finding him at the end of a hallway, opening a door…to reveal another door.

"What?" The brunette asked in confusion, prompting Donald to open the second door.

"Hey!" Donald yelled at the third door, tapping his foot soon after. At last, Goofy opened the third and hopefully last door, showing the opening to another room. Going through without much of a surprise this time, we made it to what looked like a kitchen. I decided to study the room, realizing that there were tables, vases, and even teddy bears simply painted on the ground, instead of the real thing. The only real piece of furniture was a small bed on the side in the corner of the room. Walking up to it, I patted the mattress, discovering that it was bare.

"I found him!" Sora called as the bed disappeared in a cloud of smoke, sinking into the wall, much to my surprise. Slowly shaking my head, I turned my attention just in time to the surprisingly small white rabbit run into a closing door. Walking to the door, we all bent down to somewhat make eye contact with the knob. "How did he get so small?"

"No you're simply too big." I had to immediately refrain from looking around as I saw the doorknob speak, trying to figure out if there could be some other owner of the voice.

"It talks!" Donald yelled as they all flinched in surprise. The knob proceeded to yawn lazily before speaking again.

"Must you be so loud?" He complained, his eyes drooping further at each word. "You woke me up."

"Good morning." Goofy greeted him cheerfully. Unfortunately, he wasn't very keen on waking.

"Good night! I need a bit more sleep…" With that said, he started nodding off.

"Wait!" Sora pleaded, reaching out to the now animate object. "What do we have to do to grow small?"

"Why don't you try the bottle… over there?" At once, the four of our attentions were drawn to where the knob pointed.

"What bottle?" I asked in mid-turn, remembering that there was nothing but painted-on floors and walls. At least, that was what I thought before a table materialized in a puff of smoke, equipped with a matching chair and differently colored bottles. "Never mind…" I sighed, wondering why I was even surprised.

* * *

"Now what do we do?"

"What?" Sora turned his attention to me and my question, looking confused as we stood on the now large table.

"It's great that we're that rabbit's size and all, but the door…" I jerked my thumb over to down below to the snoozing door. "I don't think we should wake it up either…"

"I think you're right." Sora nodded his head in agreement, placing his bent index finger on his chin in thought while Donald folded his arms, tapping his foot repeatedly.

"Where do ya think that leads?" At once, every head turned to Goofy, who pointed to a large opening near the bed painting. "Should we check it out?" I asked the three. At once, they all nodded their heads, seeing as there was no other place to go. As we all jumped down the now large table, no one could take a step before a swarm of Heartless appeared. Soon, my three experienced comrades bounded off into action, leaving me to look frantically look around. I had a portion fighting experience, only sparring with Sora on very rare occasions added to my run in with the Heartless in Traverse Town. Even then, I had never managed to pick anything up from my 'lessons.' From the corner of my eye, I noticed a familiar figure winding up to attack. Panicking, I threw my hand up skyward to punch it away. Unfortunately, my timing was less than good, for my arm was already up as the Soldier Heartless leaped into the air at me.

Suddenly, the Soldier bounced back unintentionally, hitting seemingly nothing before Sora ran to finish it off. Blinking twice in confusion, I hadn't noticed the Shadow creeping up to my left before a blast of fire disposed of it, courtesy of Donald.

"Stay close to me!" Sora instructed, knowing full well of my lack of experience. "Don't wander off, ok?"

"R-right…" I stammered, continuing to wonder how the Soldier was blown back in the first place. After all the Heartless were dealt with, the four of us proceeded to exit the kitchen area, where we found something entirely different on the other side. A cloudy sky with corners with what looked like a hedge maze now came into view, forcing me to look back at the now black opening from where we came. The drastic change had to be one of the more outrageous happenings since we had made it to this world, but even so, I kept my cool, not questioning the complete change in setting. Turning my gaze forward, I found what seemed like an outside court house beyond a set of people resembling cards. At the podium stood a small girl, her back faced to us, in a blue dress and a black bow attached to her mid-back length blonde hair.

Dashing to a set of spiral-like stairs, the white rabbit from before took a breath before blowing on his trumpet, letting out a breath once more as he finished.

"Court is now in session!" The rabbit bellowed, his voice cracking somewhat.

"I'm on trial?" The young girl asked, her confusion evident in her tone of voice. "But why?"

Ignoring her, the rabbit went on. "Her Majesty, the Queen of Hearts, presiding!" The four of us looked forward to see a closed-eyed woman on the judge's bench, wearing black and red, a crown adorned on her black hair and a heart shaped scepter in her hand. Immediately after her introduction, her eyes shot open, looking at the blonde with an accusing countenance.

"This girl is the culprit." She began confidently, leaning in the direction of the prosecuted girl. "There's no doubt about it."

"I wonder what she did…" I mumbled, prompting Donald to shush me.

"And the reason is…" I leaned in slightly, taking in the buildup. "Because I say so that's why!" I might as well had fallen forward at how awful the reasoning of that accusation seemed.

"That is so unfair…" I mumbled at the same time as the blonde, the she rather yelled it. Surprisingly, the queen was passive enough to give the girl a chance.

"Well have you anything to say in your defense?"

"Of course!" The girl took her chance to make her point, making the motion of folding her arms. "I've done absolutely nothing wrong!" Against anyone's better judgment, she continued. "You may be queen, but that doesn't give you the right to be so…so mean!"

"Silence!" The now enraged queen barked, making the girl's hair fly back. "You dare defy me!?"

"This isn't going well…" I commented under my breath, shaking my head. From the baseless accusations to the anger being harbored inside that woman, I found that there could be no reasoning with her.

"Hey, guys," Sora piped up, a discontent look present on his features when I peered over to him. "We should help her out."

It seemed like Donald was a bit torn as he replied, "Yea, but the-"

"We're outsiders," Goofy interrupted, further explaining. "So wouldn't that be muddling?"

"Meddling." Donald corrected.

"Oh, yeah. And that's against the rules." As Sora cocked his head to the side, I could see that he was weighing his options at the moment. Humming in thought, I decided to voice them.

"Besides," I began, getting his attention. "We don't exactly know what she did or didn't do." No matter how unjust the queen sounded, the girl was on trial for a reason, that much was certain."Maybe-"

"The court finds the defendant…" The queen continued, cutting off my train of thought as the trial continued. "Guilty as charged!"

"But do you really think a girl like that could do anything this bad?" Sora pleadingly questioned me.

"As bad as a court having to fix it?" I asked to his now nodding head. "No, not really. But-"

"For the crimes of assault and attempted theft of my heart…" The last reason had caused my eyes to widen mid-sentence as Sora gasped, shocked. Attempted theft of her heart? Now I knew that it wasn't the girl the queen was searching for, but I simply wondered what verdict an unreasonable queen could make. "Off with her head!"

"Oh no…" I uttered regretfully as the girl pleaded for her life. Her attempt was futile as she noticed the spear-wielding cards behind her become active after being dormant all this time.

"No, no! Oh please!"

"Hold it right there!" It seemed as though my friend's feet moved faster than him mouth, for Sora raced forward then proceeded to yell. Soon, Donald, Goofy and I caught up behind him.

"Who are you?" The queen yelled angrily, less than happy to see someone interrupting her court. "How dare you interfere with my court?"

"Now what…?" I whispered, now finding that the four of us were now targets for the queen's fury.

"Excuse me…" Sora had hesitated only a fraction of a second, but strengthened his resolve as he stepped forward. "But we know who the real culprit is!"

"Uh-huh." Goofy chimed in. "It's the Heartle-" One look from Donald had the dog covering his mouth as Sora continued, trying to play off Goofy's mistake.

"Anyway, she's not the one you're looking for."

"We last saw them out of this place." I pointed back to the kitchen, trying my best to help out the situation.

"That's nonsense." The queen impatiently tapped her heart-shaped scepter on the wooden stand in annoyance, looking at both the blonde and Sora. "Have you any proof?" At that point, both Sora and I faltered. I didn't have any spare Heartless parts to give to the queen and I was positive that neither did the rest of the party. With that, the girl was taken to a cage next to the queen before it was locked, sealing her inside without warning,

"Bring me evidence of Alice's innocence!" The queen instructed us. "Fail, and it's off with all of your heads!"

"I figured as much…" I sighed, the stakes now higher than before. Sora, Donald, and Goofy could protect themselves just fine, but how would they fare with helping both Alice and I?

"Report back here once you're ready." With that final instruction from her majesty, Sora had decided to talk to the Alice girl while the rest of us waited for him.

"Say, Migaru." I turned to the sound of the voice to see Goofy as chipper as ever. "Do you think this place rings any bells?"

"What are-" Then I remembered. Though I wanted to help Sora find Riku and Kairi, I was also on a journey to find my home world, and that was something I couldn't forget.

"No," I answered after a moment of silence. "Nothing's coming to me." I was rather glad that nothing did. I didn't think I would've been able to handle a place like this.

"Let's find it soon." Donald huffed, more than happy to be able to get rid of me.

"You guys!" We heard Sora call over Donald's continuous grumbling. "I've got a lead on where we could find some evidence!"

"Oh?" My attention was definitely on him at the moment. Any clue leading to Alice's innocence would complicate things much less.

"Yea, but it turns out that Alice is from another world!"

"Her too?"

"She said she was following that rabbit when she fell into the same hole as us. She says she doesn't remember her home world though."

"How strange…" Another girl with amnesia? I honestly didn't think it was that common, what with me and Kairi having similar situations.

"She told me that we could probably find some clues in the Lotus Forest." With that report, Sora pointed to a small opening near one of the guards. "We should search there first."

"Anything else?"

"No, one of the guards sent me away before I could ask anymore. But we should be just fine with what we have!"

"If you say so." I said, peering over to the dark opening. I would have rather liked to be away from the queen, being as though if we were to stay, she might give us a time limit.

Just as we made it through, the scenery changed significantly yet again, giving off an autumn-like feel. As I noticed a painted in pond at my side, something pink from the corner of my eye caught my attention. Turning my gaze in front of me, I saw the head of a smiling cat, and only the head of a smiling cat swing itself from side to side. Although it appeared directly in front of me, which would have sent me jumping back and screaming, I developed a bored look on my face as I crossed my arms and stared at the figure until it vanished. With all the things that have happened throughout this world, I had more than gotten used to any other surprises, though the headlessness of it all may have thrown me off.

Soon, the cat reappeared above Donald, at Sora's feet, and beside Goofy before settling itself unto the log to my right, its body stepping on itself before getting off and placing its severed appendage back where it belonged.

"Who are you!?" Donald yelled, obviously more than deterred.

"Who, indeed?" The cat's smile never seemed to fade as it spoke, answering the duck with a slight chuckle. "Poor Alice. Soon to lose her head, and she's not guilty of a thing!"

"So you know she's innocent!" I accused the now shrugging feline, taking an angry step forward.

"Hey," Sora put his arm in front of me, lest I pick a fight. "If you know who the culprit is, tell us!"

"The Cheshire Cat has all the answers-but doesn't always tell." He continued. "The answer, the culprit, the cat, all lie in the darkness." And with that final sentiment, he disappeared into thin air.

"Wait!" Sora urged, throwing his hands up in defeat.

"Why am I not surprised?" I asked myself dully. To our surprise however, the cat's voice could still be heard on the stump he previously stood on.

"They've already left the forest." It said, giving us its version of a hint. "I won't tell which exit. There are four pieces of evidence in all. Three are a cinch to find. The fourth is tricky. Big reward if you find them all."

"Should we trust him?" Donald asked, finally recovering from his tantrum.

"What choice do we have…?" I asked, sighing at the fact that our lives were in the hands of a riddle-making cat.

"To trust, or not to trust?" The Cheshire Cat reappeared before our eyes, his grin widening even further as he answered. "I trust you'll decide!" With that, he finally disappeared, making the six of us five once more.

"This place is a mystery I don't think I want to solve…" I muttered to myself, clearly tired of the place.

"Let's just keep going guys." Sora bounced back from the encounter first, taking the lead as I heard Jiminy scribbling furiously into his journal, taking notes on everything that had transpired. A few steps along, and a group of Heartless appeared before us.

"The culprits." I glared accusingly at the creatures before us as Sora took his position in front of me.

"Stay behind me, alright?" He instructed, watching both of our backs.

Stepping out of my stance in surprise, Sora continued to slash away at the Heartless, leaving me to look around at the surrounding Heartless being slain by everyone but me.

"Don't worry Migaru." I heard Jiminy from my shoulder. "These three are here to help!"

Looking down at my gloves, which shone its glowing violet color, I sighed after a moment. "Right…"

* * *

"Useful is a feeling you don't feel at the moment." Turning my head, I noticed the head of the Cheshire Cat float around me. I would've jumped had Jiminy not done it for me. We had all chosen to split up to find all four of the clues, leaving Sora and Goofy to venture off alone and Donald to be partnered up with me. After the ill-tempered duck cleared the path of Heartless, staying close to the box of footprints we found first, I was free to climb a few lily pad stalks to get my pink boxed clue; antennae. "The power you have was made to help you, yet your inexperience hinders you."

I chose to ignore the circling head, lest my mind get filled with even more incomprehensible riddles. Picking up the salmon-colored box, I took my first step away from the creature.

"The drive is there, yet the visualization is a bit lacking in my opinion." I heard the purple creature directly behind me as I took another step. It was like I could hear the cat sniggering at my expense as it hovered to my line of sight- its wide smile prominent among its features.

"Visualization…" I murmured after a moment, halting in my third step.

"Such as," He continued, its body becoming visible with its head as it laid in the air in a leisurely manner, twiddling its paw back and forth. "What motion does fire make? What would I use to go about protecting others? Why am I-" At that moment, the pink and purple feline stopped in place, soon turning to me with an even wider grin than before. It spoke once more as I raised a brow. "It seems like another solution has spurred another problem. Congratulations on finding all four clues." With that, he faded away.

"H-hey-" I tried calling before it disappeared completely, leaving me to look around for him. "What motion does a….what…? I knew I shouldn't have listened to that thing." I muttered dully as I jumped off of the lily pad stalk, box and all.

"Maybe it's his way of helping you." Jiminy went on, implementing his optimism over me.

"If he wanted to help, he would tell me." I told the cricket with a sigh. Catching up with the regrouped four, a familiar face caught my attention as it trotted over to Sora.

"Nice going." I was close enough to hear the Cheshire Cat say.

"Now we can save Alice!" Sora cheered excitedly.

"Don't be so sure!" The creature said with a grin. "She may be innocent, but what about you?"

"Us?" I asked, raising a brow as I stepped up beside Sora. "What about us?"

"What do you mean?" The brunette boy questioned, prompting the feline's smile to grow even wider as he walked closer to the both of us.

"I won't tell. But I'll give you something." At that moment, the Cheshire Cat put his paw on the guard of Sora's Keyblade. Soon, the start to the end of the weapon was engulfed in a blue wind before dying out. Soon, he levitated over to me, putting its paw on my gloved palm. A few seconds later, the violet key on my backhand shined a bright blue as a cold sensation tingled through my fingers.

"What was…" I trailed as Donald squawked, inspecting Sora's Keyblade.

"The power of ice."The cat 'explained' to the two of us. "Quite a treat really. Now you may want to find Alice instead of dawdling. The queen hates waiting."

Cautious looks to one another told us that the after seeing the Queen, she wasn't a very reasonable person. Soon, the five of us rushed back to the courtyard, pink boxes in our hands.

"Are you ready to present evidence before the queen?" A red card questioned, stepping up to us as soon as we were in sight. I looked to Sora, who had a determined look on his face before he answered,

"Yea, we have everything we need."

"Very well. Counsel step up to the podium." The card's expression had little to no change as he urged Donald, Goofy and I to the peanut gallery, two other cards leading Sora to take the stand.

"Now," The Queen raised a brow, tapping her scepter unto the table with a scowl. The woman was obviously in a bad mood. "show me what you have found." At once, the boxes in our hands disappeared in a blinding light, causing me to shut my eyes out of discomfort as they reappeared to the front of the court. In response, her majesty's scowl lessened into more of a pout. "Well, that's certainly a lot of evidence, but I'm still not impressed."

"It must take a lot to make her happy." I mumbled, a dull look taking over my features as I gripped the edge of the podium we stood in.

"Cards!" She bellowed, thankfully not hearing my remark. "Bring forth my evidence!" In a small flash of light, a box identical to ours dropped perfectly beside the four others. At that moment, the pink cubes melded into each other before splitting back up again.

"What-"

"Checking all five would only be a waste of time." The woman uttered with a frown. "All right then. Choose the one you wish to present. I'll decide who's guilty based on that evidence."

"What?" The brunette on trial protested, either not hearing or not acknowledging the protests from the peanut gallery. "After all the trouble of collecting it?" He was right. would the outcome have been different if we had come sooner? We had one box of shuffled evidence to choose from, and who knew what the Queen's box held?

"You dare object!? Then you will lose your head! Now choose! One box!"At that point, it seemed that the boy had no other choice then to step down and choose carefully. Well, we had four, and she had one; our chances were pretty wide. Weren't they?

As Sora edged over to the box at the far right, Donald was practically at the edge of the podium while Goofy calmly looked on. I folded my arms in anticipation as the boy stepped over beside another box, finally halting at the second to last on the left. "I choose this one."

"Are you certain?" The Queen asked. It was almost as if she was urging him to take his time, but patience was something I found she lacked. "No second chances!"

"Yea, I'm sure." Sora stated, returning back to the podium, a determined look adorned over his features. He seemed so certain…would it pay off?

Sora took his last step to his stand when the box seemed to rattle, opening up in a puff of white smoke as we all urged ourselves further to get a better look. What we saw was…

Donald.

_**Ah, the dreaded cliff hanger. Fear not! I'll try to definitely update faster! I'll need to gauge your reactions and excitement so please review if you feel like it! _ Chained. OUT!**_


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